Getting Things Done—The Trigger: Episode 14

Getting things done isn't as easy as it looks. So what gets in our way when we run our small businesses?

Do we simply run out of ideas? The Three Month Vacation Podcast examines how to get out of your own way and get your online? Or offline business working smoothly. The key to getting things is the trigger.

Snoopy Tennis

When I was little my uncle gave me a game. It was called Snoopy Tennis and it was a little console, a video game from Nintendo. All you had to do was play tennis. Lucy from Peanuts and Charlie Brown from Peanuts as well, they would hit the ball towards you and you as Snoopy had to return the service. Lots of people played those games. Millions of kids played those games across the globe, but mine was different, mine was unique.

My console had a crack in it. It had fallen at some point in time, so I can see the ball heading towards me and I have to listen for it. It would go beep, beep, beep, and then I had to push down on the red button that would ensure that I hit the ball, got the service back over the net as it were.

Triggers

What was interesting was that I wasn't looking for the visual anymore. I was listening to the sound and responding. That sound was a trigger. One of the biggest reasons why we can take as much time off as we do is because we have these triggers in place. Without the triggers it's very hard for us to get anything .

That is because as adults we have so many things to do and so many responsibilities that when we try to do something, when we try to finish a book or write an article or do anything at all, we struggle. We struggle because we don't have that trigger in place.

What is that trigger and how can we make it work for ourselves? Let's start with the things that I don't like very much. One of the things that really bug me is having to exercise. As I've mentioned before, I don't care much for exercise, and yet you'll notice that I'm reasonably fit. This is because I end up doing between 80,000 to 100,000 steps a week.

You have to ask yourself how does someone who doesn't like exercise doing such a lot of walking. Well, I use a trigger. In fact, two triggers.

Sense Of Reward

The first trigger is just the coffee. that is when I get up in the morning I am not headed for a walk, I am headed for a coffee. I'll wake up, I'll get my iPhone on, put on the audio, and then head towards the café. When I reach the café that's my reward. What's really happening here is that the walk is not something that appeals to me that much. However, the coffee does appeal to me.

That sense of reward, that carrot and stick as it were, is what helps me…to continue listening to or reading this podcast

Oh and before I go

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Comments

Hi Sean,
I’ve been listening to your podcast every Monday for about a month now.
The music is wonderful. Your information is always so fresh and worth my time.
The ideas, solutions and concepts you share act as a trigger for me to act.
Thank you for shining a torch on such important issues and pointing out obvious clues to get things done. I will experiment with leaving things open. Thank you!

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